Former Portland Trail Blazers Guard Will Barton Retires From Basketball

Former Portland Trail Blazers player Will Barton announced his retirement from professional basketball on Wednesday.

The 34-year-old Barton played 11 seasons in the NBA, including his first two and a half with the Blazers from 2012-2015. The 6-foot-5 guard spent time with four NBA teams over his career, making his biggest impact during an eight-season tenure with the Denver Nuggets. He last played in the NBA during the 2022-23 season with the Toronto Raptors.

This past season, Barton played for the Guangdong Southern Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association.

“13 years pro. 11 years in the NBA. Man where did the time go?” Barton wrote Thursday on Instagram. “Crazy when I was young I never seen the end in my vision. But here we are. Man what a time I promise it was everything I dreamed of plus way more.”

The Blazers selected Will “The Thrill” Barton with the No. 40 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, bringing him to Rip City in the same draft class as Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard. He averaged 3.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 11.0 minutes per game over 144 regular-season appearances in Portland. Even though Barton played limited minutes during his time with the Blazers, he still earned the moniker “The People’s Champ” from fans.

In February 2015, Portland traded Barton to Denver in a package for guard Arron Afflalo and forward Alonzo Gee. The acquisition of the veteran Afflalo was meant to bolster Portland’s bench rotation for a strong postseason run, but the move lost much of its luster after the season-ending injury to starting guard Wesley Matthews less than a month later.

Barton grew into a much more established role in Denver, averaging 14 points and five rebounds per game over eight seasons while finishing fourth in Sixth Man of the Year voting twice (2016, 2018). He also duked it out against the Blazers during that memorable 2019 Western Conference Second-Round Playoff Series between the two franchises. The series ended after seven games with Portland advancing to the West Finals.

Above all the accolades and history just listed, Barton’s retirement brought back two memories for this writer. One, was when Barton threw Trevor Ariza’s shoe. The other, and most notable, was when he put the bow on one of the greatest Blazers highlights ever.

SportsCenter, that’s a highlight! And that’s a career. Good luck to The Thrill in his future endeavors.